Sunday, May 8, 2016

sun, clouds, rising humidity... (pm.08.may.16)>

Sunday's stats:

Low temp: 64.2F (17.9C)
High temp: 77.3F (25.2C)
Rainfall: none

It is extremely hazy across the area this evening, with a layer of mid-level clouds as well.  We started off with a good amount of sunshine this morning, though cloud development along the mountains was evident again right from the start.  That cloudiness pretty much took over as the afternoon wore on, and once again, it kept our temps from rising as much as we were expecting.  It was 93ºF/34ºC at the airport in Gaggal, however, which shows just how close to us that really warm air is lurking.  Satellite pics show some isolated thundershowers from southwestern Jammu & Kashmir into western Himachal right now, but there has been no sign of any of that in our immediate area up til now.

The upper-level pattern from southwest into southcentral Asia during the next several days looks more like late May or early June than early-mid May.  Very warm air aloft is staking territory, as a very moist batch of air in the lower and mid-levels of the atmosphere oozes northeastward from the Arabian Sea.  This will keep the sun-cloud battles going strong... it will create rising humidity levels... and it will also eventually bring us a good chance of some waves of significant shower and thunderstorm action.  Starting on Tuesday, we're going to have a better than 50/50 chance of seeing an impressive period of rain/thunder each and every 24 hour period -- and that should last all the way through next weekend.

Temperatures will probably average out on the low side of normal for this stage of May, due to the unusually high humidity, but a few hours of sun will make it feel very muggy and unpleasant.  This May is shaping up to be a strange one, it appears...

Check the daily stats for the month, along with THE 7-DAY OUTLOOK on tabs at the top of the page.